Source Control (2), MS TFS - Centralized Server App

This is a series of articles related to Source Control or Version Control issues, from a stand-alone app, such as MS SourceSafe, to a Server app, such as MS TFS (Team Foundation Server), to web services such as GitHub, AWS, and MS Azure DevOps. We tried to categorize this series of articles as Source Control or Version Control, but this site does not have these categories, so we put the articles in the DevOps category, as explained in the wiki:

DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops). It aims to shorten the systems development life cycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality.[1] DevOps is complementary with Agile software development; several DevOps aspects came from the Agile methodology.

The structure of this article series will cover,

• Stand Alone App:
  • MS Source Safe
• Server App
  • MS TFS (Team Foundation Server)
• Online (Cloud) Centralized Service:
  • MS Azure: DevOps
    • Boards
    • Repos
    • Pipelines
    • Test Plans
    • Artifacts
  • GitHub
  • AWS GitHub Enterprise
• Distributed App:
  • Git

Because these are huge topics,  I will not go step by step, instead, each section will be relatively independent to become a reading unit.

• Source Control (1), MS Source Safe --- Stand Alone App 
• Source Control (2), MS TFS --- Centralized Server App --- this article 
  • Source Control (2-1), TFS --- Comparison
  • Source Control (2-2), TFS --- Merge 
  • Source Control (2-2), TFS --- Shelving
• Source Control (3), MS Azure DevOps (GitHub, Jira) --- Centralized Service
  • Source Control (3-1), DevOps and Different Products 
• Source Control (4), Git --- Distributed App
  • Source Control (4-1), Git --- Configuration 
  • Source Control (4-2), Git --- Configured to Connect to DevOps and GitHub 
  • Source Control (4-3), Git --- Cherry Pick in Visual Studio
  • Source Control (4-4), Git --- Recover Git Tree: Reflog/Reset
  • Source Control (4-5), Git --- Recover Deleted Branch
  • Source Control (4-6), Git --- Revert 
  • Source Control (4-7), Git --- Get Specific Version or Commit 
  • Source Control (4-8), Git --- Get Specific Version or Commit in practice 
  • Source Control (4-9), Git --- Merge: Fetch, Pull, Push and Sync
    • Source Control (4-9-1), Git - Merge in Server Side 
    • Source Control (4-9-2), Git - Merge in Client Side 
    • Source Control (4-9-3), Git - Merge in Concept
• Source Control (5), GitHub access (setup connection) 
  • Source Control (5-1), Create a Git Hub Repository from Visual Studio
  • Source Control (5-2), GitHub Extension for Visual Studio
• Source Control (6), DevOps access (setup connection)
• Source Control (7), GitLab access (setup connection and Clone to Local) 
  • Source Control (7-1), GitLab Extension for Visual Studio
  • Source Control (7-2), Setup SSH Key for GitLab
• Source Control (8), Git, Azure Repos, and Visual Studio (Interaction)
• Source Control (9), Push into Git Hub and DevOps 
• Source Control (10), Git Hub, DevOps Publish

Introduction

On September 10, 2018 Microsoft renamed VSTS to Azure DevOps and by Q1 2019 will rename TFS to Azure DevOps Server, and upgrade both with the same new user interface.

Azure DevOps (VSTS) is a hosted cloud offering, and Azure DevOps Server (TFS), is an on-premises version. Both offer functionality that cover multiple stages of the DevOps lifecycle including planning tools, source code management (SCM), and CI/CD. 

As part of their SCM functionality, both platforms offer two methods of version control.

1. Git (distributed) - each developer has a copy on their dev machine of the source repository including all branch and history information.

2. Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC), a centralized, client-server system - developers have only one version of each file on their dev machines. Historical data is maintained only on the server.

Microsoft recommends customers use Git for version control unless there is a specific need for centralized version control features. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/vsts/tfvc/comparison-git-tfvc

This is noteworthy given that in June of 2018 Microsoft purchased GitHub, the Internets largest online code repository. This deal closed on Oct 26th, 2018.

--- the paragraph above is from Azure DevOps (TFS/VSTS) vs. GitLab, as an introduction.

This is the structure of this article,

• Introduction
• TFS
• Visual Studio - TFS
• TFSC Environment Setup
  • Connect to TFS Server
  • Connect to Team Projects
  • Setting Local Path
• TFSC Overview
  • Key Concepts
    • Changesets
      • Integrated Check-in
      • Check-in Policies
    • Workspaces
    • Shelving
  • Other Concepts
    • Labeling
    • Compare/Diff --- Source Control (2-1), TFS --- Comparison
    • Branching & Merging --- Source Control (2-2), TFS --- Merge

TFS

Visual Studio - TFSC Provider

TFSC Environment Setup

TFSC Overview

TFSC Major Feature

Reference

• GIT and Visual Studio with Azure DevOps Repos - Step by Step --- youtube.com
• Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) --- techopedia.com
• What is Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) – Introduction --- dotnetcurry.com
• VSTS is now Azure DevOps. What has changed and why? --- dotnetcurry.com
• Azure DevOps (TFS/VSTS) vs. GitLab --- about.staging.gitlab.com
• Choosing the right version control for your project: Git and TFVC version control - Azure Repos | Microsoft Docs